With
the Precision Lightning Strike Location System
(PLSLS), crews can identify and eliminate the
source of lightning attraction.

Contrary to popular misconception, lightning often
strikes the same place twice. Certain conditions are
just ripe for a bolt of electricity to come zapping
down; and a lightning strike is powerful enough to
do a lot of damage wherever it hits. NASA created the
Accurate Location of Lightning Strikes technology to
determine the ground strike point of lightning and
prevent electrical damage in the immediate vicinity
of the Space Shuttle launch pads at Kennedy Space Center.

The area surrounding the launch pads is enmeshed in
a network of electrical wires and components, and electronic
equipment is highly susceptible to lightning strike
damage. The accurate knowledge of the striking point
is important so that crews can determine which equipment
or system needs to be retested following a strike.
Accurate to within a few yards, this technology can
locate a lightning strike in the perimeter of the launch
pad. As an added bonus, the engineers, then knowing
where the lightning struck, can adjust the variables
that may be attracting the lightning, to create a zone
that will be less susceptible to future strikes.

Partnership

In 2000, Consumer
Lightning Technologies, Inc., of
Asheville, North Carolina, licensed from NASA the lightning
detection technology that was developed at Kennedy.
It calls this project the Precision Lightning Strike
Location System, and like many good scientific endeavors,
it has an abbreviation: PLSLS. Consumer Lightning Technologies
was later absorbed by Mag Holdings, Inc., which created
the company, Zap Guard USA, Inc. A lightning
products and research company, Zap Guard USA is continuing
the research and now marketing the PLSLS.
Sam Gasque, past president of Consumer Lightning Technologies
and a technical consultant for Zap Guard USA, is still
active in the research and marketing phases of the
PLSLS. He believes this technology has strong potential
for a variety of venues, virtually any place that is
prone to lightning strikes. He sees great possibilities
for the use of PLSLS at utility companies, airports,
government agencies, golf courses, industrial complexes,
and racetracks; on farms and in small towns; and as
a claims- verification tool for insurance companies.
Product OutcomeZap Guard USA wants to know exactly where lightning
strikes, so it can determine what is attracting the
lightning. Its research is focused on airports and,
specifically, airport runway lighting systems. Larger airports may have thousands of miles of wire
and cable underground, and those that were formerly
U.S. military air bases could have 10 times more wire
and cable underground than needed. This old, abandoned
cable could easily draw a lightning strike and provide
a path for lightning to spread to other places within
a facility and destroy all electronics in its path.
The PLSLS could show maintenance crews the location
where lightning has hit. Crews could then correct the
situation, usually by digging up unused cables and
pipes, so that the attraction to lightning is minimized
in the future.

NASA
created this technology to determine the strike
location of lightning around the launch pads
so that crews could test the wires and electrical
components after a storm.

Gasque, back in the 1980s, also developed the
Lightning Retardant Cable (LRC) with the help of Kennedy
and the Southern Technology Applications Center. This
patented technology helps protect electrical wires
and cables from strikes, and was featured in Spinoff
1998. It keeps lightning from traveling through the
cable, preventing damage to satellites, antennas, and
cable systems. The LRC is approved by the U.S. Federal
Aviation Administration and
recommended by one of the largest insurance companies
in the United States.Zap Guard USA plans to offer the PLSLS technology to
airports as a companion product to the LRC. From there,
it will expand its campaign to power utilities, sports
facilities, defense, industry, and government. Gasque believes that one of the major social benefits
of the new PLSLS technology is verification of insurance
claims. “Each year, claims due to lightning strikes
continue to climb. Where insurance companies once would
simply pay a claim, today they tend to verify the loss
first, before settlement. Individuals may now need
to prove there was a lightning strike in their area
before they can recoup damages,” Gasque explained.
“Insurance companies will call the weather service
or a similar service to find out if there was a thunderstorm
in a claimant’s area on the specific day of loss. If
not, the claimant may have trouble getting paid for
the damages,” Gasque added. As PLSLS is implemented
in given areas, exact information regarding lightning
strikes can be given to either the consumer or the
insurance company.
According to Gasque, once PLSLS is implemented further,
sporting events will become safer, as will air travel
and traffic signals. Utilities will also become more
reliable during storms. All of these improvements will
have a positive economic impact. The engineers at Zap Guard USA have been pushing the
technology for the past few years to make it simpler
and more effective. They have, with the help of electrical
engineering students at North Carolina State University
under the guidance of Dr. Bart Greene, been making
major advances to the technology. When they first licensed
the device, it was hard wired and had a range of less
than 1 mile. Now, a few years later, it is wireless,
solar powered, and has a range of more than 30 miles. As Gasque points out, “The bottom line of PLSLS is
once you know exactly where lightning strikes, you
can identify the attraction. After you remove or neutralize
the attraction, the frequency of strikes is substantially
minimized. Minimize the strikes and you create a safer
social and industrial environment with minimal loss.”